Decades from now history students might puzzle over our policy of locking people up for possessing drugs the same way we have trouble understanding a previous generation's prohibition of alcohol. There's a long way to go yet, but the trend is toward legalization. Even if drugs aren't legalized, it would certainly make sense for the United States to wave the white flag on the drug war. It's been ruinous on the very folks and neighborhoods it ought to be liberating.

Colorado and Washington voted in November to decriminalize marijuana, and last week state Rep. Austin Badon said he'll be introducing a bill this legislative session that would lessen the penalties for those caught repeatedly in possession of marijuana. The bill also proposes to strike marijuana possession from the list of crimes that could be counted toward the three strikes a defendant gets before a life sentence is opposed.